🎄 Review ~ Around the World in 80 Words by Paul Anthony Jones

Elliot&Thompson
October 2018
My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

From Monte Carlo to Shanghai, Bikini to Samarra, Around the World in 80 Words is a whimsical voyage through the far-flung reaches of the English language.

My thoughts about it..

Reading is always an adventure and, in Around the World in 80 Words, the adventure starts in London with a journey through the English language. Taking us from the derivation of the term, "Kent Street Ejectment", which I have to admit I hadn't heard of, but maybe Londoners have 😊, through to being sent to Coventry, this absorbing etymological exploration, is a cornucopia of fascinating detail.

Like all readers, I have a curiosity with words, not just in speech and modern fiction, but also in the way our language has evolved, and of the diversity of the origins of words in our shared language.

This is one of those engrossing compilations which is easy to dip into and out of, picking a country or a word and then just letting the beauty of both, and the exemplary research, take you into the fascinating and complicated world of the English language.

Eighty stops, from London, to the Vire region of France, the source of the word Vaudeville, through to Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and all parts of Eastern Europe, from Colombo in Sri Lanka, home of Serendipity, to the Brazil nuts of Rio de Janeiro, there is such a wealth of information, not just about the words we have purloined from so many different cultures, but also in the way their use has changed and evolved over time.

I don't travel much, but that doesn't mean I'm not fascinated by different cultures and so the absolute appeal of Around the World in 80 Words, for me, is that I've travelled thousands of miles and learned so much fascinating detail without ever having to ditch my cup of tea, or leave my favourite armchair.

Around the World in 80 Words is a perfect Christmas present for any wordsmith, linguist or book worm.

About the Author

Since 2013 Paul has tweeted a new old word every day. After just six months, HaggardHawks had amassed more than 4,000 followers, been named as one of the best language-based accounts on Twitter, and had been profiled on The Huffington Post. It added its 5,000th follower in August 2014; its 10,000th in June 2015; its 40,000th in August 2017; and its 50,000th in June 2018. 

Supporters range from Stig Abel at the TLS to Susie dent on Countdown, and many famous names follow @HaggardHawks eg Jack Monroe, Rufus Sewell, Simon Blackwell, Robert Macfarlane, Sara Pascoe, Allegra Stratton and David Baddiel.

Website

Twitter @HaggardHawks


@eandtbooks

Review ~ The Accidental Dictionary by Paul Anthony Jones

The remarkable twists and turns of English words

Elliot&Thompson
2016

A bit of blurb..

Our everyday language is full of surprises; its origins are stranger than you might think. Any word might be knocked and buffeted, subjected to twists and turns, expansions and contractions, happy and unhappy accidents. There are intriguing tales behind even the most familiar terms, and they can say as much about the present as they do the past.

My thoughts..

 Like all voracious readers I fell in love with the power of words once I was old enough to understand the importance of a good vocabulary. At primary school I had teachers who instilled the fundamentals of good grammar, punctuation and spelling, so that by the time I left primary school, aged eleven, my reading age was quite  advanced.

My love of words has lasted throughout the whole of my life. I enjoy reading a good list, and to have a fascinating plethora of words all contained in one sparkly volume has been a real delight. The Accidental Dictionary focuses on the etymological origins of 100 words that are in common usage but whose meanings were once very different to what we know today. If you want to flip through the book at whim, which is what I did, then a really good content list allows you to choose at random the hidden gems which nestle on every page.

Take the original meaning of Flirt, which popped into the English language around the late Middle Ages as an onomatopoeic word meaning to flicker or flit, and then by the 1500s it had evolved into an entirely different connotation, that of, to sneer scornfully. It wasn’t until the mid-1600s that flirt came to be used more romantically in a term which described the way that ladies flirted coquettishly with their elaborate fans.  However, I think my favourite evolution of the word has to come in 1755 when Samuel Johnson defined flirt in his Dictionary of English Language to mean ‘a pert young hussy’. Hence, by the mid-1800s, the term flirting had evolved into the word we are quite familiar with today.

The dictionary starts and ends with Affiliate and Zombie, with the other 98 words, in-between, being equally as absorbing.  All are presented in fascinating randomness, and in a clear and concise way their origin meaning is emphasised along with the word’s fascinating evolution.

The Accidental Dictionary is a real hidden gem of a book which will sit comfortably on my book shelf just waiting patiently until I need to know the original meaning of a word.

Did you know that the original use of oaf was elf, or to be more precise, an impish hobgoblin?

Somehow "Oaf on the shelf" doesn’t have quite the same festive connotation, does it? Or maybe it does...I'll let you ponder that one!!

Best read with…a firkin of good English ale, strong and sweet…

About the Author

Paul Anthony Jones is a writer, etymologist and language blogger. He is the author of several books on trivia and language. A piano teacher and musician , he lives in North East England.

Follow on Twitter @HaggardHawks

My thanks to Alison at Elliot & Thompson for my review copy of The Accidental Dictionary.



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